


Warm Feeling

by Renaisty



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Introspection, Obsession, Spoilers, everyone's mentioned really, i think..., this is just thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-23 05:16:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6106081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Renaisty/pseuds/Renaisty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles falls out of 'love' with Lydia.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Warm Feeling

**Author's Note:**

> Stiles is more of an asshole canonically, but i'm trying to put in words a part of his character development (which i'm probably overdoing, i don't think he's come quite this far) and I hope we'll get some more come s6... There's nothing more to say, this is just something that wouldn't leave me alone.

Stiles falls out of love with Lydia.

He doesn't even realise it. Not until after.

It wasn't love. Not really. He knows now, but then he didn't. Sometimes, he remembers that longing, that obsession, with disgust and a bit of shame; sometimes with fondness, but not the feeling itself. Rather, everything else. The world was simpler when his biggest concern was being ignored by the great Lydia Martin.

Well, not the biggest. Scott was always at the forefront of his mind, as long as he remembers himself. But Lydia was there too, always the unreachable, unattainable perfect girl. _If he was just good enough, if he could get her to see he was a good guy, not a jerk like Jackson, or Aiden... She would finally see that he was the best for her..._

He took her to prom, and everything felt perfect. Except he was still his awkward, imperfect self and she was still the perfect girl and she _did not_ want to go to the prom with him. He shouted at her and they danced, and he wondered sometimes, why did she do it? She humoured him that one time, out of what? Pity, boredom? Just to get him off her back?

He used to wonder. He doesn't think about it anymore, because she's made it obvious, many times, that she doesn't like him. Not like that. Maybe not at all; he's been kind of an asshole to her. Maybe unfair as well. No one's perfect. Not even - and it still feels kind of wrong but he'll repeat it until it doesn't - Lydia Martin.

He realises it in the rain because even as he shouts at Scott, he _knows_ that Scott's not perfect. If he was, then he wouldn't have believed Theo, or so he'd like to think. His theory shakes a little when he is forgiven with the simplest of admissions. Still, everybody made mistakes (mostly him), and Scott is not perfect and Lydia is not perfect and somehow a weight is lifted off his chest. She is not perfect.

He realises it when Jordan Parrish, resident hellhound as it turns out, makes her smile the way she hadn't before. Parrish, who never raises his voice at her, or anyone who doesn't deserve it. Parrish who was set on fire for her, who she went on midnight missions with and who doesn't dismiss her, ever. They have something, and it's beautiful. They chose each other.

He realises it when he looks in those dark eyes, and she looks back. When Malia's gaze focuses on him, like fire through his bones and hers. When she puts the marker between her teeth and looks at the teacher like a deer in the headlights (and he'd never say that to her for fear of his life). When they pounce on each other, both with ferocity and sometimes not.

When he says 'friends are not food, Malia' and he wants to smile, with nothing but warmth inside him. When losing his patience feels so far away if he's with her, and when he sees her flashing blue eyes as she offers to torture someone and he says no.

When she walks into the room and their eyes meet. When she tells him she would never leave him behind, and even more when she says it about others. He feels pride, and that elusive warm feeling that only his father and Scott could inspire; that elusive warm feeling he thinks might be love.

Then Lydia says he saved her, and he thinks maybe they can be friends now. Or not. She'll decide.

And Parrish saved them all, and the pack is back together, and with it that warm feeling; and Scott heals, and Stiles is less bitter and guilty about things (he thinks), and Malia looks for him half-panicked, half-angry and steals a fleeting kiss even as she runs to save Scott.

He thinks she feels that warm feeling too.


End file.
